Wednesday, April 13, 2011

BACK!

Last week, our house was struck. Struck by a terrible virus that involved all the usual suspects: nausea, migraine-level headaches, fever/chills, etc. We're still keeping the bland white foods handy, but overall, everyone has recuperated, and we're once again fully functioning members of society who go to work, take out our trash, check the mail, and so on. This guy even got a walk last night.

While I was sprawled out on the couch and indulging in some Desperate Housewives rerun love via Netflix, I was also happily perusing the internet. Here are some fun things I found.

Hands 2 Help Fabric Swap/Charity Quilt ProjectSarah's set up this awesome project. She did a great job explaining how things are going to work here. I'm so excited to get crackin' on this! I don't have any ongoing charity quilt projects in the queue, and I think having REAL-LIFE deadlines will give me the motivation I need to start and finish the quilt. If you can find the time, please sign up!! By signing up, you'll be entered to win an Origins jelly roll, and if we can get to 40 participants, Sarah will throw in a Sherbet Pips jelly roll!

DIYing Around the House: A Tale of Ambivalence
I have a big love for Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Pier 1, etc. But I also have a budget. So I look for DIY solutions. I bookmark a LOT and I mean a LOT of DIY home decor tutorials throughout my daily travels on the web. But I never do them because I already have so many quilting projects started. So I hardly ever buy throw pillows, slipcovers, placemats, etc because I tell myself I can make all that. The problem is that I never actually get around to making them.

So to resolve this dilemma, I'm giving myself next week OFF from quilting because I'd like to take some of the ugly out of my house. The first thing on my agenda:

(our hand-me-downed couch with an ill-fitting slipcover. not quite pottery barn catalog-worthy but soooo much better than before.)

Slipcovers: We have four of these atrocious 1991-model mauve wingback chairs that Mom and Dad gave me when we bought our house. They're in pretty good shape because growing up, the family M.O. was to lounge around on the floor instead of sitting on furniture, like civilized people. (I come from a line of classy folk. What can I say?) It's just the color. It doesn't match anything in the house, except the ottoman that came with the set of chairs.

So my mission for next week: make a slipcover for the ottoman. No matter how bad it turns out, there's no way it will be worse than it looks now.

In the meantime, however, I have some quilting to do. I know I've been showing pictures of this same quilt for the last month. It's not a difficult pattern. I just keep hitting a wall. I have one more row's worth of stippling to do, machine quilting in the borders, and then the binding.

In the spirit of full disclosure, when I couldn't sleep the other night, I cut out fabric from my stash and scrap bin to make a scrap quilt. I could have sewed on some projects I've already started, but I was afraid the machine would wake up the Husbatron.

Finally, I'm trying to hold myself back from starting yet another new project. Triangle Modern Quilt Guild received our solid charm packs from Robert Kaufman (THANKS, Robert Kaufman and Co.!), and I know just what to do with mine. Now that I've resolved the dilemma of what to make, I'm itching to actually get started on it.

3 comments:

Hi, Megan! I'm so glad you're feeling better! Thanks for the shout-out - we've passed 40 participants, so both jelly rolls are up for grabs now - woohoo!!

I had an off-the-wall idea about your chairs - have you thought about stenciling a cool, large print design on them, in a Marimekko-like style? It could be interesting.... and a lot easier than slipcovers!

Oh, good luck with the slipcover. You're braver than I am. I quit making clothes because they never fit properly - quilts are nice a f.l.a.t. :) I've seen many beautiful pieces of furniture upholstered with a quilt and have always wanted one.